


Before Baker Street

by lunaris1013



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-24
Updated: 2012-04-24
Packaged: 2017-11-04 06:31:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/390827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunaris1013/pseuds/lunaris1013
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lillian Grace Dawson Church Webster Hudson hadn't always lived in Baker Street, but it's the only place she's ever called home.  This is how she came to be there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before Baker Street

**Author's Note:**

> If I don't get bogged down in the research (see The Hardboiled Detective AU debacle of 2006) I'll be filling in the 65 years that follow. This wee bit is to encourage me to work on it.

Little Lilly Dawson was barely older than three when she and her mum left London for Auntie Marie's house the countryside.  She didn't understand about bombs and wars and soldiers, only that Da went away and Mummy cried a lot.  Soon after, Auntie Dee and baby Jamie came to stay and both of them cried a lot as well.  Lilly got bigger and learned her numbers.  Her cousin Jamie learned to walk.  There were sweets at Christmas and a visit from Da.  Eventually everyone stopped crying so much.   Come spring, there were green things all around and lots of space to run and play.  Lilly forgot London in that way that small children do when there are so many new things to learn.  
  
The seasons came and went.  Christmases passed with no more visits from Da.  Lilly started school in the village and began to understand about bombs (they were dropped on London) and war (it's what the men on the wireless talked about) and soldiers (that's what Da was, and Jamie's da too).  She learned to read and devoured all the books she understood, and some that she didn't quite.  She helped look after Jamie, helped grow the veg, helped in the kitchen.  On her seventh birthday Mum and Auntie Dee let her help bake a cake with the last of the sugar.  When it was all mixed and put in the oven, a soldier came to the door.  All he said was, "Mrs. Dawson?" and Mum began to cry.  She ran into her room and shut the door and didn't come out for a long time.  Auntie Dee held her tight and told her Da wouldn't be coming home.  Lilly knew she should be sad, but by now he was little more than a photograph and the hero of the bedtime stories Mum told her, the brave soldier in far away Africa.  Everyone forgot about her cake until it had burned.  
  
When the autumn came, a man from the village came round to lay in firewood.  His name was Mr. Church, and Auntie Marie said that he'd had half his foot shot off in Germany so the army didn't want him any more.  He smiled at Mum a lot and started having dinner with them on Sundays.  Lilly liked him.  He would always slip a butterscotch to her when Jamie wasn't looking.  At Christmas, he'd brought a goose for the table and a handsome copy of Little Women for Lilly.  For the first time since Da had died, Mum looked happy.  
  
The war went on.  Mr. Church would take her and Mum to picnic sometimes, other times he would take just Mum to the cinema.  Auntie Dee said it was "scandalous."  Auntie Marie told her to stop being petty.  A year after he'd first come to the house, Mr. Church asked her for permission to marry Mum.  They both said yes.  The Germans surrendered, the war was over, and the very next day the three of them went to the registrar's office dressed in their finest.  Lilly asked Mr. Church if it was okay to call him Da.  He swept her up in his arms and said, "Yes.  I would be very happy if you would."  
  
Mum laughed and said, "And tomorrow, we're all going home."  
  
They'd packed their bags last night, so she knew they'd not be staying at Auntie Marie's any more.  "Where's home?"  
  
"London, Lilly!" said Da, "221B Baker Street."


End file.
